Franklin County’s New Approach to Tourism Marketing Harnesses Collective Creativity and Leverages Occupancy Tax Revenues
All it takes is a visit for people to catch onto the “Franklin County” way. With the Adirondack Park in the south and Canada to the north you could spend all your free time exploring the peaks, valleys and lakes that attract many to our home. But why stop there? Franklin County has a budding farm-to-table scene thanks to our agricultural backbone, charming downtowns across the map with arts and culture avenues, buzzing breweries and coffee shops to get you hopped up, and fun and fascinating historical artifacts representing a sort of microcosm of American history.
The Franklin County Economic Development Corp. (FCEDC) recently awarded funds to tourism-related businesses to support their marketing efforts through the Destination Cooperative Marketing Program. The awards, provided to businesses in Tupper Lake, Saranac Lake, Malone, will have region wide impact and are among the first of many that will be given through three programs recently established by Franklin County and administered by FCEDC.
The programs (the Destination Cooperative Marketing Program, Destination Development Program, and the Destination Event Sponsorship Program) form the foundation of a new strategy Franklin County devised in 2020 to execute regional tourism promotion funded by the County’s occupancy tax revenues by providing leveraged funds to businesses, attractions, and assets that will have direct benefits to our communities and improve the quality of place for both residents and visitors.
The development of these programs is guided by several underlying principles:
- Acknowledging that the many small businesses that make up our tourism infrastructure know best what they need and what will help their business grow and expand. The collective creativity of this expertise is enormous.
- Understanding that the funding structure rewards the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of individual businesses because it lowers the financial risk of trying new ideas.
- Celebrating that county occupancy tax funds go further because of the match required by the businesses.
- The quarterly funding application cycle and rapid approval process allows for opportunistic and responsive initiatives.
More information about these programs is available at www.adirondackfrontier.com.